Submission Guidelines: How to Contribute

Severance is a place to share your voice and speak your truth without judgment. You can contribute in a variety of ways.

Tell us about your experience or sound off on a particular issue related to genetic identity or family secrets. (See suggestions for topics below.) Your video can be 2 minutes or 20. We’re not looking for great production values — a simple video selfie from your phone will do. You’ll need to first upload your video to YouTube and then send us a link.

Tell us your story in roughly 1,200 words or fewer. Just tell it as you’d tell it to a friend.

These aren’t meant to be your stories in a nutshell — send those in a micro-memoir. Essays, instead, should drill down to a particular facet of your experience or your feelings and illustrate what your experience has meant to you. For suggestions, see the list of possible topics below.

Your submission can take the form of a traditional essay, a more experimental or lyrical essay, a letter, or a list. Essays can be as short as 250 words or as long as 2,500, though preference will be given to those somewhere in the middle.

Don’t worry if you don’t consider yourself a writer. If you have a good idea, we’ll help you shape your essay. For additional inspiration and to give you a better idea of what we’re looking for, check out some essays from other magazines, for example, Modern Loss, River Teeth, The Manifest-Station, Hippocampus Magazine, and Catapult.

If you’re a person of few words, address anything in the topic list below — or any topic you like — in 300 words or fewer.

Anything is fair game, but following are some suggestions.

• How have you honored — or grieved the loss of — a parent you never knew?
• What do you remember about learning about your NPE, donor-conceived, or adoptee status?
• How did your mother or father react to your feelings about your new status?
• Did you struggle with whether to reach out to biological family?
• What was your experience reaching out to biological family?
• Before you learned that a parent wasn’t your parent, did you have a sense of not fitting in?
• Has there been a particular time when you’ve felt unheard or unseen?
• How have you been changed by a DNA surprise?
• How has reunion been especially rewarding or especially challenging?
• What it was like to see a photo of a biological relative for the first time?
• How did you “come out” about your new status with friends or family after a DNA surprise?
• How has your experience affected your relationships with your spouse, family members, or friends?
• What would you like to say to the parent you’ve never known?
• What do you wish others — those who haven’t had your experience — understood?
• What has helped you cope with your new status or the aftermath of a DNA surprise?
• What do you wish people wouldn’t say to you?

Readers with previous writing experience may contribute reported pieces on a range of topics from self-care and coping to genetic genealogy and psychology. These may include Q&As, reviews, lists, and how-to articles. Please send a pitch, along with a writing sample, rather than a completed article.

Share your thoughts about topics you’d like to see covered in Severance or resources you’d like to see added.

Send a tweet to @SeveranceMag or click here to comment on our Facebook page. And while you’re there, consider joining our private Facebook group to join the discussion with other adoptees, NPEs, or donor conceived people.

Add your voice by commenting on stories. Posts, articles, and essays reflect only the viewpoint of the contributors, and all viewpoints are welcome. Because this is a space in which to lift others up, and because we promise contributors a safe place in which to speak out, we’re not inviting argument or harsh criticism, but rather comments that enlarge the discussion. We reserve the right to remove those we deem intolerant, offensive, insulting, or belittling.

All contributions will be edited for space and clarity and to conform to our style guidelines.

Please include a brief bio and a photo (JPG) of yourself.

By submitting, you acknowledge that the material you contribute is original, hasn’t been previously published, and doesn’t infringe on any copyright or violate anyone’s privacy. You further acknowledge that you have the rights to allow us to publish any photographs you submit.

Severance is not monetized—no subscriptions, no ads, no donations—therefore, contributors are not compensated. They may, however, provide their Venmo or other money transfer account to be included in the article so readers who wish to can can tip the writers.

On Venmo

Please send all copy text in an email message or as a Word document attachment to bkjax@icloud.com.  Please do not send Google docs. Put “Submission” in the subject line.

A word final word about language:

Although we’ll curate essays and other contributions, selecting what we deem the most useful, we won’t moderate opinions or, with few exceptions (noted above) censor language. Be funny, snarky, sad, irreverent, angry, profane, or provocative. We don’t care how you say it. Just say it!